LeAnn Rimes Surprises Her Biggest Supporter With a Renovated Kitchen and Outdoor Oasis

Like many before her, LeAnn Rimes experienced waves of highs and lows as she navigated the entertainment and music industry. She credits her best friend of 20+ years, Roger, for helping her to navigate the good times and bad. Bouts of anxiety and depression made them as close as family, so LeAnn wanted to recognize all that he’s done for her by giving back in a big way. Roger loves to cook and entertain, so she collaborated with Drew and Jonathan Scott to transform Roger’s kitchen and outdoor dining area.

“He saved me,” says LeAnn. “He always takes care of everyone around him and doesn’t really think about himself enough. I’m glad we get to do this for him.”

Roger and his husband, Darrell, love cooking just as much as they love entertaining their big Italian family. “He needs to cook for an army,” said LeAnn, so they set out to design a large open concept indoor-meets-outdoor entertaining space. The kitchen transformation required the team to move walls and reinvent the layout of the home.

Collapsable sliding doors connect the kitchen with the outdoor dining room. “These doors will never be shut,” said Roger when he saw his new home. With seating options indoors and out, Roger and Darrell can seat up to 20 guests and host many large gatherings and celebrations.

Roger’s existing kitchen had a challenging workflow. “You wouldn’t believe how many times I nearly spilled boiling water walking from the stove to the sink,” he said. With a layout that felt somewhat like a galley kitchen but was inefficiently divided and blocked off by decorative walls, LeAnn knew firsthand how hard it was to entertain and prep meals. She was determined to use the space differently to make it functional.

The new kitchen transforms the home into a culinary oasis. By removing the walls between the kitchen and dining room and expanding the size of the island, the design team was able to deliver a larger, more open dining area. Moody black cabinets, hardwood floors and a veined black countertop help the space feel cozy and modern.

There was no denying that space was limited in the old kitchen. Adjacent to the kitchen, the team noted that a laundry room and full bathroom created barriers to their design. To maximize square footage in the kitchen, the designers found a way to reconfigure the floor plan to make it more functional.

Walls for the bathroom and laundry room were removed and both rooms were completely reoriented to allow more square footage in the new kitchen. A larger island provides space for indoor prep and entertaining, while a 20-foot collapsable sliding door opens smoothly for access to the new patio, and outdoor kitchen and dining area.

“It’s the kingpin of all sliders,” Drew Scott said about the 20-foot sliding glass door that they installed on the back of Roger’s kitchen. Not only do the doors open fully, but they stack and recess into the wall so they’re completely out of the way. The deck height was bought up to the same level as the indoor flooring to make the transition more fluid.

While the kitchen before may not have looked bad, it really showed its age. Damaged hardware and countertops, and dated, inexpensive cabinets were long overdue for an update.

LeAnn knew that Roger favored dark, moody colors, and voted for black painted cabinets. Paired with modern appliances, a black, minimally veined countertop and personal touches including photos of Roger’s family, she sought to give Roger the new kitchen she felt he so deserved.

A non-structural wall with damask print wallpaper divided the kitchen from the dining room and was a physical barrier to traffic flow in the old kitchen. In addition to removing it, the designers reoriented the space in Roger’s kitchen to optimize workflow.

Matte black double wall ovens are eye candy in the new space. With the non-structural wall eliminated, Roger has easy access to the range, ovens and refrigerator along the back wall. The kitchen sink was installed across from the range in the large, expanded island.

The damask wallpaper makes another appearance in this before image of the dining room. The room was naturally bright thanks to its large, midcentury windows, but it was definitely under-utilized. By opening the wall between the kitchen and dining room, Roger and Darrell can use it as a functional extension of their new kitchen.

In addition to painting the window trim black for contrast, the designers painted the iconic midcentury wall divider. Its new matte black paint makes it a focal point in the space. A moody pendant hangs over a large, square wooden dining table, adding seating for up to eight.

A step below the kitchen, the old porch in Roger’s backyard lacked some privacy and needed an overall update. Roger loves to cook, so LeAnn set out to redesign his outdoor living area with functionality and entertainment in mind.

The new porch was raised to be level with the kitchen floor for a seamless transition between rooms. New modern furniture offers more seating and a freestanding fireplace offers privacy and ambiance. Along the back wall, the designers installed a redwood slat wall and a full outdoor kitchen including a grill cooktop and a pizza oven.

It's never especially appealing to have a full bathroom off the kitchen, but in this case, Roger's bathroom also affected the desired floor plan for the new kitchen. Drew and Jonathan didn’t want to lose the bathroom completely, but they had a vision of how they could reorient it within the space. By moving walls around, they allowed more square footage for the kitchen itself.

The newly reoriented bathroom makes better use of the home’s square footage, while making it less obvious that there's a full bathroom near the kitchen. With luxurious floor-to-ceiling slab marble and modern glass doors, this remodeled bathroom is just icing on the cake in Roger’s home. LeAnn even tiled the shower using a sleek Italian marble paired with a black Spanish marble to create a modern pattern.

The laundry room also consumed critical real estate when it came to the home’s design. Not only was it inefficient to carry the laundry all the way through the kitchen to the washer and dryer, but the cabinetry that extended into the laundry room needed an upgrade.